What? No more bagels?

So, you or your child has just been diagnosed with celiac disease (CD) or gluten intolerance (GI). What? No more bagels? bread? pizza? Ahhh! Well, the good news is that you can find pretty good replacements for all these foods in gluten-free form; however, the bad news is that eating out, traveling and finding exact matches for your favorite foods can prove to be more difficult.

These days the gluten-free world offers many great things; bread that actually toasts, bagels, and in some progressive areas pizza and pasta out in the restaurants. When shopping it is easy to fall prey to buying a lot of junk food gluten-free items that may taste good but offer no nutritional value. Many of the gluten-free flours used in main stream products lack nutritious flours and contain mostly starches. These flours are not fortified like wheat flour so try to choose products made with flours that are nutrient dense like buckwheat, brown rice, sorghum, coconut and contain a higher percentage of whole grain to starch content. These flours provide protein, fiber, B vitamins and minerals. It is important to eat a healthy diet and restore nutrient status in your body. GI and CD often deplete the body and leave many with less than optimal health.

For a complete list of safe and forbidden foods and information about gluten-free body care products and prescription medications please visit www.theglutenfreegirl.com. Today, there are many gluten-free blogs that have wonderful recipes and meal ideas. The Gluten Free Bistro has a blog (www.theglutenfreebistro.com/blog ) that converts many of Martha Stewart’s recipes to gluten-free and they supply restaurants in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico with whole grain, nutritious pizza crusts and pasta. In addition, the Bistro Blend All Purpose GF Flour used in all the products contains 76% whole grain flours and is only 22% starches. This ratio is the first of its kind in the market place and is available for purchase on the website along with their pizza crust. Please visit their website (www.theglutenfreebistro.com) for more information and for more great recipe ideas. The future is bright for those starting their gluten-free lifestyle now and you can look forward to enjoying many great foods.